Technology Revolution spinning in place

The technology revolution that surrounds us has long become like the Cuban Revolution, or the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. (Is that still officially underway?) At some point they were indeed revolutionary, but decades on? Please.

With my back to the obsolescence wall, I have once again begun the task of getting new computers, upgrading software, migrating data and rebuilding the Map Center webstore. This will be time consuming, frustrating and expensive, but unavoidable if I want to stay in business.

In 1990, before some of you can remember, I implemented the first computer system to run The Map Center. It was a big expense and lot of work. Once up and running, it instantly shortened my workweek by 10 hours. That is what you call a productive investment. Several times since, I have had to spend again as much money and time on computers and software. If each of those so-called investments were half as productive as the first, I would be saving so many hours per week that I should be watching time run backwards by now. I count those subsequent outlays not as investments, but mostly as forced transfer of wealth, a fancy term for robbery.

The system requirements for, say, the software I use to print shipping labels now rival the computational power at NASA’s disposal before the first moon landing. Is that progress or a just a form of rot? For my money, the revolutionary part of the high tech revolution has come and gone.